Wreckage Off Haiti May Be Christopher Columbus's Santa Maria

5/14/2014 7:44PM

A U.S. explorer believes he's found the wreckage of the flagship vessel belonging to Christopher Columbus, the Santa Maria, off the coast of Haiti. The ship ran aground on Christmas Day in 1492. WSJ's Niki Blasina reports. (Photo: Getty Images.)

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... a US six Lara believes he's found the wreckage of the flagship vessel belonging to Christopher Columbus off the coast of Haiti ... explore a very different spoken York on Wednesday after presenting a video that shows underwater wreckage he believes is the Santa Maria ... the ship ran aground on Christmas day in fourteen ninety two ... and it was the ... exact distance ... to understand ... the last decision reaffirms for ... two weeks ago the exact distance ... that he says ... and find exactly what were looking for and ... we eliminated everything else ... showed photos and video of what he said was a pile of ballast stones from the wreckage ... that's the Dow's pile of that's the stones that they put ... in the bottom of the ship ... to keep the ship stable so wouldn't ... this the weight of the stones keep the ship from moving around the scope of Dallas ... and ... the Dow's bio ... tech footprint will be expected ... he says he's coming forward now because the wreckage has been doing it needs to be excavated immediately be ... with them working on this for a long time the reason why we came out with now is we we just learn from our last expedition ... to the Directive included ... two are appealing to the public are appealing to the government eighty ... which had been very cooperative ... president has been marvelous in ... understanding the significance of this obviously ... and ... to think in order to protect and preserve it ... some experts have said they would be difficult to verify that the wreckage Clifford this sounds really is the Santa Maria ... with its exploration of the site is being financed by the